Redmond, Washington-based software maker Microsoft has unveiled the first improvements resulting from its  July purchase of search engine startup Powerset, adding features based on Powerset technology to the Web's third most popular search engine, Microsoft's Live Search, the company announced Wednesday. The changes to Live Search included better handling of search results taken from user generated Web encyclopedia Wikipedia. Microsoft said that the new Powerset-based changes were presently being tested with a small percentage of random Live Search users. Three Live Search Changes Among First Integration Projects San Francisco-based Powerset is an Internet search engine startup founded in October 2005 that specializes in so-called semantic search techniques for finding better answers from the Web by understanding the meaning of written information online instead of the simpler keyword matching techniques widely used today by rival search engine firms Google, Yahoo and IAC InterActiveCorp's Ask.com. The changes announced Wednesday were the "first few integration projects" to come out of Microsoft's purchase of Powerset, an acquisition said to have cost the world's largest  software maker more than $100 million and which was seen as an attempt to strengthen its search engine prospects in the wake a failed attempt to purchase the Internet's second most-used search engine firm Yahoo. Powerset developed technology that aimed to free users from having to type in the exact words they want to find with a search, and instead matches a query written the same way one might speak in a conversation, with the most relevant information available based on what the company's software considers the core meaning of Web pages. While none of the three changes Microsoft has implemented in Live Search were considered major implementations of Powerset's technology, they offered a glimpse into the types of enhancements Microsoft could add to its search engine over time. Expanded Wikipedia Search Result Captions "These projects gave us an opportunity to get to know our colleagues," Microsoft Live Search general manager Scott Prevost and Powerset primary development manager Hugh Williams wrote in a message posted Wednesday on both company's blogs announcing the changes. Those users of who were able to see the changes being tested -- a type of release Microsoft said was "currently being 'flighted' on Live Search" -- were able to preview a new variety of Wikipedia article caption. Microsoft said that it chose to use Powerset's semantic technology for the improved listings because "Wikipedia articles show up in a large percentage of Live Search queries." As part of the ongoing test, which Microsoft said would eventually lead to "deeper integration" of Powerset systems, Microsoft's search engine has begun to "analyze the Powerset captions versus the Live Search captions to see which perform better." Increased Use Of Freebase Information Powerset brought a workforce of some 60 employees to Microsoft, including many well-known in the field of artificial intelligence and natural language processing, and Microsoft said in June that it planned to add more engineers to the Powerset group. The Live Search changes announced Wednesday were, according to Prevost and Williams, "meant to be achievable in 30 days and act as a first collaboration between the Live Search and Powerset teams." The Live Search project has also given testers more of what Microsoft calls answers, extended search result listings containing a summary of information pulled from sources such as Freebase, Metaweb Technologies' online user generated database. The new Live Search listings increase the number of results displaying the enhanced summaries. The new Live Search has also been updated with a list of related searches generated by Powerset's "Factz" system, shown next to a list of search results. Powerset has also begun to benefit from the addition of certain functions brought over from Live Search, Microsoft said. "We now have 'related articles' on Powerset enhanced Wikipedia articles," Prevost and Williams said in the Wednesday announcement. "We’re getting these directly from Live Search," they added. Microsoft Live Search Shows Off First Powerset-Based Additions Together the related search lists, Wikipedia article captions and expanded answers from Freebase showed that the Microsoft and Powerset engineering teams have been able to work together and begin testing changes to Live Search that Microsoft hopes will lead to larger implementations of Powerset's semantic search technology in the coming months. Since 2006 Microsoft has spent some $500 million building its core internal  structure, and roughly $8 billion buying Web technology firms, including nine so far in 2008 such as Norwegian business search specialist firm Fast Search and Transfer ASA, which it bought in January for roughly $1.2 billion. Powerset had taken in funding valued at more than $10 million prior to being acquired by Microsoft. In May Powerset began its first public test, covering searches of the millions of pages of information from encyclopedia Wikipedia and Freebase, that allowed for queries using natural language phrasing such as "What is the capital of Guam?" The test saw Powerset software analyze every word and sentence of text from Wikipedia and Freebase to gauge their meaning, and used its technology to display what it considered the more relevant answers to searchers' questions. Related Links :
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